156 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



several weeks later took a batch of Screech Owl's eggs out of it. An- 

 other singular experience he had with owls is, he made a hole in a wil- 

 low tree ; when he came to look after it again he found owls had taken 

 possession of it and had nearly filled it with field mice ; he said there 

 were enough mice in it to fill his derby hat. This happened just 

 before a heavy snow storm and about ten days later every mouse was 

 gone." 



Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that he has made a number of exami- 

 nations of Screech Owls captured in Illinois, and very generally found 

 their food consisted of such insects as the larger beetles and grasshop- 

 pers, also many mice. Grasshoppers and other orthopterous insects are 

 devoured in large quantities by these birds. 



During the summer months and at other times when insect life is 

 abundant the Screech Owls subsist mainly on an insect diet. These birds 

 also prey* on mice, shrews, other small quadrupeds and small birds. In 

 the twenty-seven stomach examinations, which I have recorded, of birds 

 taken principally in the winter season, seventeen had fed on mice and 

 insects ; five, small birds ; three, mice and insects ; two, small birds and 

 insects. 



GENUS BUBO OUVIER. 

 Bubo virginianus (GMEL.). 



Great Horned Owl ; Hoot Owl. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 19). 



Length (i'emale) 21 to 24 inches ; extent about 5 feet ; tail about 9 Inches ; male 19 

 to 23 long ; extent about 50 to 53 inches. Can be distinguished by its large size and 

 long ear-tufts. Plumage blackish, brownish, dusky, grayish and whitish in mix- 

 ture ; throat and middle of breast white. 



Habitat. Eastern North America, west to the Mississippi Valley, and Irom Lab- 

 rador south to Costa Rica. 



This well-known and rather common inhabitant of the forests can 

 easily be recognized by its large size, the conspicuous white feathers of 

 the throat and the long-ear tufts which measure 2J inches or more in 

 length. The Great Horned, the largest of all our native owls, is the 

 first to commence nesting. I have found its eggs in February, and am 

 told that it occasionally lays in January. In this locality the Great 

 Horned Owl seldom breeds in hollow trees ; sometimes it constructs a 

 rude and bulky nest of sticks, lined with grasses and feathers, on the 

 large horizontal limbs of trees in its favorite wooded retreats. Its eggs, 

 measuring about 2 inches in length by 2 inches in width, are mostly 

 deposited in the deserted nests of hawks or crows. Although it is stated 

 by different writers that this species lays four or more eggs, I have 

 never found, in seven nests examined, over two eggs or a like number of 

 young. Mr. Thomas H. Jackson, of West Chester, Pa., writing in the 



*This species, and also the Great Horned Owl, is said to prey occasionally on fishes. 



